Welcome one and all to the Escape Collective Men's WorldTour Draft 2025!
We had a lot of fun following along with our silly competition last year, mostly thanks to the ingenuity of Escape Collective member Elizabeth C who devised this self-updating leaderboard.
So we decided to do it all over again, this time with a year of experience under our belt, ready to either shake things up or make the same strategic mistakes once more.
To catch you up to speed in case you're new here, last year a draft order was randomly selected before all competitors would then pick riders in a snake-draft (meaning the person who picks last picks twice before the order snakes back around).
Controversially, Abby selected Mads Pedersen with the first overall pick, meaning Caley then chose Tadej Pogačar and ran away with the competition. Kit came last and received the punishment of having to complete an Everesting, which was helpfully shouldered by the Escape Collective membership who joined together in a Strava club first-round and completed more than the required elevation in a single weekend, maybe even in a mere 24 hours.
We recorded the draft in full as a podcast, which you can listen to here.
So, this year, as per a regular draft, the order was set with the last-place finisher picking first and so on with Caley having the last pick. In a twist for 2025, we had one of our members join in to lead the members' team. Andrew (@Alain Philippe on Discord), was randomly selected from the members who put their hand up to take on this responsibility, and then his draft position was randomly selected.
Unfortunately, it selected him ninth, the last pick. Should I have probably just spun the selection wheel again and sacrificed the integrity of the game for the good of one of the many people who pay our wages? In hindsight, probably.
Before we got to the actual draft, we caught up on last year's performances and whether competitors wanted to change their team names as well as learning about Andrew's new franchise. Teams have to be an existing WorldTour outfit but you can add extra sponsors on as you see fit.
Prize and Punishment 🤩😖
This year's prize for the overall winner is a 30-second advert inserted into an episode of the Spin Cycle podcast. The person who finishes last overall will have to lend their voice to record the victor's advert. If Toms wins and gets someone to wax lyrical about Lidl-Trek, we hope it unlocks some sort of bonus clause in his contract. If I lose and someone makes me sing the praises of The Green Goop Corporation, I may have to leave the company in protest.
Now, let's hear from the competitors about whether they're changing their team names this season.
Teams ✍️
Kit: Last year I was Ag2r La Mondiale-Criterion because I wanted to hold on to the brown shorts we'd had before and also going for a film-related second sponsor. I'm opting for a similar sponsor this year but I'm going with Picnic-Letterboxd. Picnic is one of my favourite name changes for this season, it makes a lot more sense than what they were before ... I've already forgotten. It feels like Letterboxd chimes with what they are already, Picnic-PostNL.
Jonny: I was the Ineos Grenadiers-Greenpeace, and we've heard about the trials and tribulations of the British squad over the past year so we've had to take on another sponsor. I'm proud to announce we will be the Ineos Grenadiers-Greenpeace-Poundland team. It's a chain of budget stores in the UK, where presumably everything costs £1 but that's not actually the case. It's like Dollar General or Dollar Tree in the US.
Toms: We actually have a musical chairs of manager changes, Abby and I have swapped main teams. I will this year be known as Lidl-Trek-Bauer because I feel we need some hockey smack talk introduced, because hockey smack talk is very funny. [Note: last year Toms provided year-round and comprehensive smack talk to Dane only to eventually be beaten by him].
Dane: Like my namesake team I understand I had a rough start, largely because I drafted multiple riders from Visma-Lease a Bike who had a rough start but we're going to stay the course, we're going with the same team name, Visma-Lease a Bike-Monster Energy. Monster Energy deserve better for their sponsorship dollars so we're going to try and do that for them.
Abby: This year we will be EF Education-Swift Nation, this year we picked up Taylor Swift as our co-title sponsor, we think it's about time she got into sports. When Taylor eventually releases Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version) and Reputation (Taylor's Version) Rapha can make special edition kits to celebrate the albums.
Joe: I think sponsor stability is really important in these troubled times and you know AlUla, part of the Saudi Arabian Government basically, are (maybe) our coming One Cycling overlords, and Palantir seems a little too on the nose for these interesting times but we're going to stick with it. So AlUla-Palantir it is once again.
Caley: I'm bringing massive changes, complete turnover. We're not French anymore. We sold the WorldTour licence for pennies on the dollar, and unfortunately, both of the American teams were already taken (Lidl-Trek and EF) so I'm resurrecting an old sponsor. We're going to be the US Postal Service-Bald Eagles, we're applying a bit of an American angle to it, we're going to have a mascot and it's going to be a big ol' eagle on our backs and it's going to be great.
Jonny [interrupting]: So you're basically forgetting the rule that you need a current WorldTour team for the game? I guess that's your right as boss?
Caley: Yep, there you go. You've figured it out.
Andrew: Seeing as Caley has abandoned the French teams in the draft I've gone with a very French team, Groupama-FDJ, and I've added my favourite non-alcoholic drink, because I don't drink, Tourtel Twist. Groupama-FDJ-Tourtel Twist is going to be the country's favourite sports teams I think.
Unfortunately, Ronan McLaughlin's DSM-Firmenich-PostNL-There is a Group of Young People with Dreams, Who Believe They Can Create Wonders of Life Under Uncle Niu's Leadership Internet Technology Ltd will not be competing this year due to 1) Ronan having childcare responsibilities during our allotted recording time and 2) admitting his over-competitiveness during last year's competition resulted in a net negative for his overall life satisfaction.
Rider Draft 📋
Unsurprisingly, Kit selected Tadej Pogačar with the first overall pick. In fact, seven of the eight first-round picks were for the same riders as last year. Mads Pedersen was the biggest faller from the first round, from first overall to 11th. While Primož Roglič similarly went from third overall in 2024 to 13th in 2025.
Other big fallers were Simon Yates (9th to 36th) and Geraint Thomas (20th to 63rd),
Amongst the highest risers were Enric Mas (63rd to 18th), Jordi Meeus (71st to 33rd), Isaac del Toro (67th to 39th), Jonathan Milan (35th to 10th) and Tim Merlier (37th to 14th), and the highest-picked new entry was Thibau Nys who selected 16th overall.
28 of the 80 picks were riders not selected in 2024.
We are also considering implementing a trade window, potentially in between the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France, but haven't decided if we're going to do that or how it would work just yet.
The Debrief 🤔
Kit: Anything can happen [when asked if a win is expected], as we all know, Pogačar isn't racing loads ... so there aren't loads of points on offer even if he does win everything ... but yes, I'm hopeful of a decent result and I will enjoy what the rest of the bunch gets up to, particularly my third pick, of course, Toms Skujiņš.
Jonny: I honestly think I'm going to come top three, I can't believe I've got this team. It's completely different to last year, I've used my head instead of my heart, I've got some characters and everything is looking up.
Toms: I think last year I was quite far down the line so had to end up getting some guys who were less well-known but I like that Kit picked Thibau quite early on because he definitely will score big this year. I've been training hard Kit, I've had a good week, even if in December I was sick twice, we're back on track. And Dane is not prepared for the smack talk this year.
Dane: I honestly feel the smack talk improved the team's performance, they were up to the challenge. My goal by mid-April was just to beat Toms.
Abby: I like my men's team quite a bit, I have a really solid team but I don't think I'm in for a chance of even podium-ing this year, let's be honest. But I'm really happy with the people on my team.
Joe: I think my team has what it takes to move two spots but what I think will happen is I finish fifth rather than first. I think the guys I picked are reliable points scorers but when we get to the end of the year I wouldn't be surprised if this team has the lowest number of actual wins.
Caley: I'm not happy because Joe stole Brandon McNulty from me and that was key to the entire strategy and without McNulty I'm genuinely concerned with my prospects here. Much hinges on whether the Eagle of Durango can fly once again and I don't know the answer to that question.
Andrew: I'm happy with my team, I would have liked to get one of the big six names at the top of the list, Wout van Aert was who I had my eye on. I was surprised some of the guys like Küng and Pithie went so late, I had my eye on Madouas and Antonio Morgado who I didn't end up picking. I'm sure the members will be shouting at me "why didn't you pick that guy?!" but it'll be fun to see how it plays out.
Follow Along At Home 👀
As mentioned earlier, Elizabeth C's leaderboard is currently in the process of being updated. Hopefully, you feel some sort of attachment to your team, Groupama-FDJ-Tourtel Twist and its fearless leader Andrew.
Abby and her Wheel Talk podcast crew have also done a Women's WorldTour Draft 2025, so make sure you check that out when it releases later on Tuesday.
Good luck to all competitors. See you after the Tour of Guangxi.
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